Identity and Ancestry Theme Analysis

Jamal’s ancestors are both desert warriors and bakers, and for much of the book he wonders which one he is more like. To Jamal, these ancestors offer a template for his present and future, showing him both what he is and can be. Each occupation symbolizes different qualities to Jamal, and he finds himself embodying—or wishing to embody—one or the other as he navigates the various trials encountered along his journey. Early in the novel, Jamal wants to be more like his desert warrior ancestors on his mother’s side. When he’s trying to rescue his soccer ball from underneath the tank, for instance, he bemoans that he is not as brave as a desert warrior. He believes, with disappointment, he only inherited his father’s “baker genes,” which in this context, Jamal sees as significantly less useful. As the novel progresses, however, Jamal begins to realize the value of his “baking genes,” even as he increasingly proves himself to be brave like a desert warrior. For example, while bailing water out of the sinking smuggler’s ship, Jamal thinks of how tirelessly his father’s baker ancestors worked to bake bread, beginning at three in the morning every day—something that inspires Jamal to keep bailing water, even when it’s difficult and exhausting.  

Ultimately, Jamal realizes that a person’s ancestry doesn’t have to dictate who they are in full. At the end of the novel, Omar, for instance, reveals that his ancestors were thieves. Though Omar has stolen before, Jamal realizes that he has also been far more than this; on countless occasions, he has proven himself a selfless friend and ally. Thus, when Omar asks Jamal about his own ancestors, Jamal answers that he is a little of both his parent’s ancestors: he’s part baker, part desert warrior. Jamal realizes that who a person is more complex than who their ancestors were or where they came from, and so he decides he can be too. In this way, Boy Overboard suggests that, while one’s past can offer a useful template for self-actualization—as it does for Jamal—it does not need to be wholly prescriptive.